Twenty Over Thirty || manxman

XII - The Lies & The Truth

The entire two weeks after Dimitri reported the attempted rape incident was a pretty strange one. He continued to go to work those days once Monday came around. After all, he needed the money no matter how many times Kurt told him to take off a few days. The most heart-wrenching part of it all was when the cops hauled Kellen into the station when he recounted it all. He could hear the intense sobbing through the glass of the room he'd been sitting in, Kellen shouting on and on about how he was drunk and sorry, but such excuses were not acceptable.

It was embarrassing for Dimitri to recall what happened so a statement could be taken, the examination to line out the details of teeth markings on his body, everything it took to put Kellen away for a measly year for assault was embarrassing. But Dimitri dealt with it all so the best could come out of it. After all that, though, he felt at least a little better. He felt safer knowing Kellen was being rightfully handled for what he'd done. Not having to see that man at work every weekday made him feel so much better.

Friday finally came around after what felt like an eternity, and while the twenty-year-old suggested staying in to watch a movie, Dimitri was tired of being cramped up in his apartment. Not that he didn't enjoy that him and Kurt have practically been joined at the hip since the young man moved in across the hall, calling his apartment home, but he thought going out for some fresh air was something that would do them some good. With the whole incident with Kellen behind them, it was time to move along with their lives. Now all Dimitri wanted was to find out how far he and Kurt's relationship could go. If it was genuine, they would last, wouldn't they?

It was time to find out.

Since his body had gotten used to waking up before six in the morning, Kurt laid awake beside Dimitri as the other man slept. It was the start of their fourth week together, a Saturday, and while he was going to lay there for a couple more hours until Dimitri woke up, Kurt instead kissed the cheek of the older man and got up. He was naked, but they hadn't had sex last night. Actually, they hadn't had sex since the incident with that Kellen guy.

The whole time they knew each other in the beginning, they were having sex too many times to count. In the morning, after work, late at night, but now there was a discomfort inside of Dimitri that held him back from being as sexually driven as he'd been before. And Kurt respected that.

He grabbed his clothes from the foot of the bed and cellphone from the dresser. After stepping only into his boxers the young man left. He went back to his apartment across the hall and locked himself inside. Still, since moving in, he hadn't made the place too comfortable to be in. In the beginning, he hadn't purchased anything for the small one bedroom, because...Kurt hadn't thought he'd been in America for too long. Sure, he'd run away to another country in hopes of fleeing from his past, but he hadn't thought America would become his new home.

Then again, Dimitri was the only thing that made this place feel like a home. Without the other man, Kurt was sure he'd have hightailed it back overseas eventually. Now, he didn't want to leave.

He cooked himself a small breakfast with eggs and the rashers of bacon he'd purchased from a Japanese market, and then washed up in the small kitchen before heading into his own bathroom for a shower. When he was all washed up, had his teeth brushed, and hair settled in the dark mop it usually fell into, Kurt sat down on the single mattress on the floor and pulled out his phone.

There were a couple texts he'd received from his brother Danny, some with picture attachments of him and his wife and daughter. They were happy, it seemed, and just when he thought to send his brother a reply about how he was doing, Kurt felt his heart jump out of his chest when a long phone number popped up on his touch screen. Just looking at it, he could tell it was coming from London. And he recognized it.